I watched Fed Up, a film about sugar and childhood obesity, last night. I can’t stop thinking about it. It was extremely frustrating to watch. I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable when it comes to health and wellness, but my jaw was on the floor for just about the entire 90 minutes.

I think this should be required viewing for everyone, including you. However, I’ll give you a few of the shocking highlights here:

In US schools, pizza and fries are considered to be vegetables. If you’re faced with choosing pizza and ice cream or fish and veggies, you know it can be difficult to make the right choice. Now image you’re a kid faced with this same choice. That’s what kids are asked to do every single day.

From 1977 to 2000, Americans doubled their sugar intake. When the low-fat craze hit, fat was replaced with sugar. Sadly, there is added sugar in just about everything we eat.

Our bodies can’t process all this sugar, so it gets stored as fat pretty quickly.

Both children and adults are getting sick because of poor eating habits. Even if you’re at a healthy weight, you can still be at risk for diabetes and other diseases if you eat poorly.

The good news is that we can start making better choices and educate children about the impact of their choices. Make it game. For the next ten days, see how many meals and snacks you can eat that don’t contain any processed foods. If it’s made in nature, eat it. If it comes in a bag, box, or can, don’t eat it. Don’t worry about any other “food rules.” Kids will need to self-report how they do at school, but if you present it as a fun game or experiment hopefully they’ll be on board. Write down how you feel on day #1. Every few days, write a new journal entry. Noticing more energy and clearer skin can be great motivators for kids and adults.

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